Catholic University gets new hostels

Construction of two new hostels for students of the Catholic University College of Ghana (CUCG) at Fiapre in in the Brong Ahafo Region has been completed at a total cost of GHc8.1 million.

For some time now, the university authorities have been striving  to put up a decent accommodation for students and staff, and the results of those efforts are the magnificent structures which have now been completed for use by the students.

The projects, started in October, 2008 by Sunyani-based contractors, Messrs Brains Construction Limited and Antartic Construction Limited, progressed intermittently as a result of financial challenges, until a credit facility was sourced for the final completion. The hostels will help ease the residential accommodation problem facing the university as it can house 928 students.

At a brief ceremony, where the contractors handed the keys to the university authorities, the Vice Chancellor of CUCG, Professor James Hopkins Ephraim, traced the history of the establishment of the university and said this was as a result of a decision by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference in 1997, adding  that the university obtained its accreditation from the National Accreditation Board (NAB) in December, 2002, as an affiliate college to the University of Ghana, Legon.

He said currently the CUCG, which held its first matriculation in May, 2003, with 50 pioneer students, can now boast  4,454 students and was affiliated to the University of Cape Coast (UCC), adding that it was the conviction of the authorities that a conducive campus environment would enhance the academic performance of students.

A member of the governing council of the university, Madam Nancy Yelpoa, expressed the hope that, the structures would accommodate many more students and invoked God’s blessing on the completed  projects.

By Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah/Daily Graphic/Ghana